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Practical AI Workbench · Free Shelf · Worksheet 01

Find the Five Hours

A Practical AI Workbench worksheet for one real workflow.

Name

Date

This worksheet helps you find where time leaks out of one weekly workflow. Five hours is the search target, not a guarantee. If your number comes back smaller, that is a useful finding and it cost you twenty minutes. Work in pen or in the browser. Be honest rather than tidy.

01 Pick the workflow

Name one workflow you personally run every week. Pick the one that most often follows you home. Write it in one sentence, starting with what triggers it and ending with what done looks like.

If you cannot fit it in one sentence, that is your first finding. Keep cutting until it fits.

02 Walk it

List the steps as they actually happen, not as they are supposed to happen. For each step, write who does it, how many minutes it takes, and how many times per week it happens.

Step	Who	Minutes	Times per week

If you run out of rows, your workflow is more than one workflow. Circle the part that hurts most and walk only that part.

03 Mark the leaks

Go back through your steps and mark every leak you find. A leak is time spent on any of these six things.

RetypingMoving the same information from one place to another by hand.
ChasingReminding people to send what they already agreed to send.
WaitingThe work sits because a decision or an input has not arrived.
FormattingMaking something look right after it is already correct.
SearchingHunting for information you have received before.
Re-decidingMaking the same judgment call again with no record of last time.

Leaky step	Leak type	Minutes per week

04 The math

Total the minutes per week from Section 3 and divide by sixty.

Total minutes per week

Hours per week

If your number is under five, that is a real finding and this worksheet just saved you a workshop seat. If it is over five, the next section tells you what to do about it.

05 The three-bin test

For each leaky step, answer three questions. Yes to all three puts the step in the AI bins. Any no keeps it human.

Is this step repetitive enough that you could describe the pattern to a new hire in five minutes?
Does the step start from information that is already written down somewhere?
If AI produced a wrong version, would someone catch it before it reached a client, a student, a patient, or a regulator?

Three yeses and low stakes: AI can run it with a review gate. Three yeses and higher stakes: AI drafts, a person finishes. Any no: this step stays human, and that is a design decision, not a limitation.

Check a box for each yes. In the last column, write H when the step stays human, D when AI drafts and a person finishes, or G when AI runs it behind a review gate.

Leaky step	Q1	Q2	Q3	Bin (H / D / G)

06 Pick one

Circle the one step you would fix first. Pick the smallest fix that would still matter on a normal Tuesday, not the biggest problem on the page.

First useful fix

07 What happens next

Path AYou can fix the circled step yourself. Many people can, and this sheet was still worth your time.
Path BYou can bring this completed sheet to a Practical AI Workbench session, where you will build and test the fix with help at the bench.
Path CYou can send this sheet with an audit request, and the shop will tell you honestly whether the next move is one focused fix, a training session, or nothing yet.